This has been a bad stretch for sequels. Magic Mike 1 was surprisingly good, with an actual story and heart. This second one seems like a cheap excuse to sell tickets to watch the hot men strip. If I was a chick I would be all over it, but I don't have much desire to see the second personally.

WTF happened to Ryan Reynolds??
Universal is estimating that Minions, the 3-D prequel to their Despicable Me franchise is heading to an astonishing $120.9M opening weekend. The CG animated flick from Illumination Entertainment marched into 4,301 venues Friday, the most North American venues in Universal's history, and left with $46.2M for the day.

Thus Minions is now vying for the title of the biggest animated opening of all time (not adjusted for inflation). It appears it will surpass 2004's Shrek 2 with $108M ($919.8M worldwide cume), 2010's Toy Story 3 with $110.3M ($1.06B worldwide cume), and even 2007's mammoth Shrek the Third opening with $121.6M ($799M worldwide cume).

Warner Bros. is reporting that The Gallows, their R-rated horror flick, made $4.5M in 2,720 venues for an estimated $10.8M weekend (depending on how the Twitter-sphere treats it).

Focus Features' Self/Less, with Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley, opened in 2,353 venues and made $1.9M on its way to a likely, feeble $5M weekend.